The NIH (National Institute of Health) has recognized hypnosis as a method in dealing with Irritable Bowel. One of the first studies of hypnotherapy for IBS was conducted by Dr Peter Whorwell, a leading expert on IBS and hypnotherapy in the UK. A trial he conducted in the 1980s found that a group of IBS sufferers who had failed to respond to other treatments showed dramatic improvements when treated with gut-directed hypnotherapy. He said that over 20 years of study has shown that hypnosis improves symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and can even alter the underlying physical problems that cause the symptoms.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, chairman of the National Women's Health Network in Washington D.C., says that hypnosis should be the treatment of choice for cases of IBS which have not responded to conventional therapy.

Regarding using hypnosis for IBS , gastroenterologist Cynthia M. Yoshida, MD, director of the Women's GI Clinic at the Digestive Health Center of Excellence at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville says "I'm a believer,"

Dr Graeme D. Smith from University of Edinburgh studied 75 patients with IBS, before and after they took part in hypnosis sessions. The 20 men and 55 women who took part in the study reported that hypnotherapy brought about significant improvements in the physical and emotional symptoms related to IBS.

Hypnotherapy is one of the best known and most widely used treatments for IBS, and can offer sufferers a drug-free solution to their symptoms of diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain and bloating. In "gut directed hypnotherapy" we take the general techniques of hypnotherapy and apply them directly to the abdominal pain and digestive symptoms which IBS sufferers struggle with. This type of hypnotherapy has been clinically tested and found to be very helpful to many IBS patients.

A new study shows hypnosis as an effective, long-term therapy for irritable bowel syndrome. In the largest long-term study of hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome to date,seven out of 10 patients reported an improvement in symptoms after treatment.